Overcoming considerable technical challenges, iconic director Werner Herzog takes viewers into the interior of Chauvet Cave in southern France where the world's oldest cave paintings--hundreds in number--were discovered in 1994. These 32,000-year-old artworks--pristine and astonishingly realistic drawings of horses, cattle, and lions--come alive in the torchlight, as Herzog muses on this extraordinary place, the nature and purpose of Paleolithic art, and its creators. For Herzog, these paintings present perhaps the earliest manifestation of our primal desire to communicate and represent the world around us, which leads him to wider metaphysical contemplations on evolution and our place within it, and ultimately on what it means to be human.
MPAA rating: Rated G.|||general
Sundance Selects ; History Films presents a Creative Differences production ; a film by Werner Herzog ; written and directed by Werner Herzog ; produced by Erik Nelson and Adrienne Ciuffo ; produced in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture, Communication [and the] Department of Cultural Heritage.
Originally produced as a motion picture in 2010.
Special features include: Ode to the dawn of man (39 min.); Trailer [for the film] (2 min.); Previews (9 min.).
Narrated by Werner Herzog.
DVD; region 1, NTSC; 5.1 Dolby digital surround; anamorphic widescreen presentation preserving the 1.78:1 aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition, enhanced for widescreen televisions.
In English with optional subtitles in English SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing) or Spanish.
Director of photography, Peter Zeitlinger ; editors, Joe Bini, Maya Hawke ; music, Ernst Reijseger ; executive producers, Dave Harding, Julian P. Hobbs, David McKillop, Molly Thompson.
